Object of the Month

P. 16985 Homer is one of the most famous Greek poets of all time. Everyone has heard of his two works, the Iliad and the Odyssey. On these fragments of papyrus, of which only some of the larger ones can… Read More→

BGU II 610 (P. 7428) Latin Texts are quite rare on papyri. This papyrus is a nice example of this. It is inscribed on only one side and contains a list of veterans of a legion with names and rank… Read More→

BGU VIII 1730 (P. 13802) This papyrus contains a royal decree which regulates Alexandria’s supply with wheat and legumes. It is especially striking to see the draconic penalties for those who disobey these regulations. The text on this papyrus contains… Read More→

SB XIV 11876 (P. 7216) This papyrus contains a decision of the Roman Emperor Caracalla from the years shortly after 215 AD, which deals with a disputed tax issue that has been brought to him by his legal adviser Egnatius… Read More→

BKT X 29 (P. 11831) This piece shows the earliest preserved Greek horoscope on papyrus. The text mostly consists of abbreviations and its five lines were written in dark ink on a small, rectangular sheet of papyrus. Based on the… Read More→

T.Berl.Möller 134 = SB I 3440 (ÄM 13350) This wooden tablet, a so called mummy label, belonged to a women named Senorsenuphis, daughter of Psentatriphis. The name of the deceased is carved into the wood in four lines of Greek… Read More→

BKT V.1, 3 (P. 6845) The Iliad is probably the best known of the epics of the Greek poet Homer and has been regarded as a masterpiece of literature from antiquity until today. The main subject of the work is… Read More→

SB III 6216–6218 (P. 14000) „Only with writing and reading life really gets started“ – this is how a Greek writing exercise starts, written by the last owner of this schoolbook. It is probably a sentence his teacher dictated to… Read More→

SB I 5943 (P. 13430) This papyrus from Theadelpheia features a fully preserved libellus, a certificate attesting the completion of a sacrifice to the gods, dated to 250 AD. The text contains 22 lines in Greek written on just one… Read More→

SB IV 7401 (P. 12560) In this text a person with the name Choareris, whose name is not mentioned in any other Greek text from ancient Egypt, received a receipt for the payment of 240 drachmas for a tax on… Read More→